Short Waitlists August data is up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s the latter. Backfilling massive attrition. Notably, they took a record number of 5th graders from the waitlisf. Clearly, those 5th graders want the path to DCI but who knows how much Spanish knowledge they have. There is no proficiency test upon entry so the large numbers of new students in that grade and other older grades could significantly impact the Spanish instruction.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the Mundo.

I've wondered whether there is less attrition at some of the nearby schools that Mundo may have relied on previously. Langley poet, where art thou?

We're at a dual language DCPS and there are definitely more families staying for elementary grades that would probably have gone to MV in years past. I even know of a few families that left MV and took OOB elementary seats to escape MV and keep the language. I bet many would take LAMB, DCB, or Stokes seats, but are passing on MV now.

[Anonymous]

The MV take here doesn't make sense to me because they don't know who's not coming back when the Lottery occurs.

It also doesn't jive that there's so much attrition if all siblings didn't get in at the PK3 level, at least at C8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The MV take here doesn't make sense to me because they don't know who's not coming back when the Lottery occurs.

It also doesn't jive that there's so much attrition if all siblings didn't get in at the PK3 level, at least at C8.

I don't know about C8, but P St has more K and 1st classrooms than PK3 classrooms, so that generates a lot of siblings and that's the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only three WL offers at BASIS after June 1, and only 53 total….

That’s the lowest they’ve ever gone on the waitlist.

It was a very competitive year to get into Walls and private High Schools this year.
As more kids stick for the high school, it trickles down as they flex to the cap for the entire school - not just 5th grade.

I agree that the WL #s for BASIS can't be viewed in a vacuum without regard to the # of seats, but your analysis of the data is flawed. The 5th grade is the same size it has been for 4 of the last 5 years; it was not smaller than normal this year. Their ratio of seats to WL, offers to WL and every other measure is directionally favorable.

I am shocked that Cooper didn't siphon off more kids from BASIS. My hope is that results in more kids who know what they are in for and are more likely to stick it out. My thesis is that more kids had options with the Latin II seats being offered and still chose BASIS, not settled for it because it was better than the ES with behavioral issues and no MS/HS feeder path. Hopefully this translates to more kids staying (and fewer parents who will populate DCUM for several years because they were simply shocked that BASIS is a small building downtown that is a test heavy, rigorous academic environment that cares much more about science and English than recess or a football team.)

We ranked Cooper lower than BASIS because the swing space for Cooper was no better than BASIS and we were unsure where the permanent location would be. Had we known that Cooper would be at the former Kirov site we would have ranked it above BASIS. We are happy with BASIS thus far but I wouldn’t be surprised if more families rank Cooper above BASIS in the years to come.

I was actually thinking about the people who declined a spot at Cooper due to facilities and the unknown permanent location the day before the Kirov announcement came out - I feel bad for them.

Your point about people having ranked BASIS higher because of facilities issues is a valid one.

Don’t feel bad for us. We knew about the Kirov site and still declined a spot for 6th grade at Cooper this summer. We are happy to stay at BASIS.

There are many reasons other than facilities that people think about when making school decisions.

That was oddly defensive. I have a kid at BASIS. I love BASIS. I can be happy at BASIS and have it be a good fit for my kid and still appreciate that for a lot of families who put Latin I first, Cooper was 3rd (or not at all) because of the combination of the physical space and the unknown of the final location. I know several families who turned down a spot at Cooper who would likely have given it a shot had the location and space been resolved.

The tribal "us vs them" on DCUM is exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s the latter. Backfilling massive attrition. Notably, they took a record number of 5th graders from the waitlisf. Clearly, those 5th graders want the path to DCI but who knows how much Spanish knowledge they have. There is no proficiency test upon entry so the large numbers of new students in that grade and other older grades could significantly impact the Spanish instruction.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the Mundo.

I've wondered whether there is less attrition at some of the nearby schools that Mundo may have relied on previously. Langley poet, where art thou?

We're at a dual language DCPS and there are definitely more families staying for elementary grades that would probably have gone to MV in years past. I even know of a few families that left MV and took OOB elementary seats to escape MV and keep the language. I bet many would take LAMB, DCB, or Stokes seats, but are passing on MV now.

Our DCPS dual language lost a couple of K students to MV this year.

[Anonymous]

I'm on the DC PCSB site and the re-enrollment rate across both campuses is 89-90%. for MV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm on the DC PCSB site and the re-enrollment rate across both campuses is 89-90%. for MV

So why are they offering so many seats?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm on the DC PCSB site and the re-enrollment rate across both campuses is 89-90%. for MV

So why are they offering so many seats?

All other years they didn't offer seats at K-5, but offered many through waitlists. They likely better predicted what would be available based on past years. When the Lottery occurs, the schools have NO INFO on attrition. For the Cook campus offering 90 seats this past year -- the only year this happened -- this more likely shows opening a new classroom. MV Cook has 600+ students.

The point here is that people are saying there's so much attrition but the actual numbers don't bear that out.

I know a family whose younger child did NOT get into Calle8 at PK3. This also does not show increased attrition.

It just seems like MV is the punching bag right now, probably because a few families aren't happy, and takeover all these threads. It's OK to not like a school and leave. Don't have to bring it down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm on the DC PCSB site and the re-enrollment rate across both campuses is 89-90%. for MV

So why are they offering so many seats?

All other years they didn't offer seats at K-5, but offered many through waitlists. They likely better predicted what would be available based on past years. When the Lottery occurs, the schools have NO INFO on attrition. For the Cook campus offering 90 seats this past year -- the only year this happened -- this more likely shows opening a new classroom. MV Cook has 600+ students.

The point here is that people are saying there's so much attrition but the actual numbers don't bear that out.

I know a family whose younger child did NOT get into Calle8 at PK3. This also does not show increased attrition.

It just seems like MV is the punching bag right now, probably because a few families aren't happy, and takeover all these threads. It's OK to not like a school and leave. Don't have to bring it down.

MV Cook did not open another K class. It’s still 4 classes of 22-25 students as in years past. It’s more likely that they had the typical 40-45 seats available for K (expansion year) and just matched more students up front knowing that many would decline based on their historical trend of going into the 100s on their K waitlist, even pre-pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:K seems to be a weird grade across the city. Yes, it's an expansion year at many places, but there just don't seem to be enough kids. I wonder if it's a small class for pandemic-related reasons? For instance, on the Hill, Brent made 58 offers!

We have a K kid and it really varies. Anecdotally, I think a lot of families on the Hill moved and that impacted K lists at Brent and L-T (not sure about Maury). Like we just know a ton of families with K kids who left altogether. Lots of reasons, some related to the pandemic but some not. Honestly, some of it was just related to real estate decisions and people realizing that it was a make or break year for that (better to move before K than wait, plus lots of different pressures to sell or buy depending on your situation).

But we also sat on waitlists for several charters who expand their rosters a lot in K but just didn't move at all. We thought for sure we'd get a spot at ITS but after some movement in early August it's ground to a halt and now we probably won't. It really just depends.

Interesting. In my kid's K class at L-T, 17 of the 18 kids are back from PK4, so there doesn't seem to have been a ton of recent loss at least anecdotally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm on the DC PCSB site and the re-enrollment rate across both campuses is 89-90%. for MV

So why are they offering so many seats?

All other years they didn't offer seats at K-5, but offered many through waitlists. They likely better predicted what would be available based on past years. When the Lottery occurs, the schools have NO INFO on attrition. For the Cook campus offering 90 seats this past year -- the only year this happened -- this more likely shows opening a new classroom. MV Cook has 600+ students.

The point here is that people are saying there's so much attrition but the actual numbers don't bear that out.

I know a family whose younger child did NOT get into Calle8 at PK3. This also does not show increased attrition.

It just seems like MV is the punching bag right now, probably because a few families aren't happy, and takeover all these threads. It's OK to not like a school and leave. Don't have to bring it down.

Oh hon. It's not just a few families that aren't happy. It's literally everyone I know who ever went there.

[Anonymous]

The MV numbers absolutely show the attrition. There are 3 instead of 4 third grade classes this year, waitlists have been exhausted (apart from preK) and class sizes are overall smaller. In fact, the smaller class size is the silver lining of the attrition. There are some incredible teachers and experiences at the school widely range depending on the particular class. The school can be a wonderful experience but unfortunately there have been enough classroom management incidents (including violent ones), communication shortcomings (one of the longest running problems) and overall mismanagement (for example, not enough aftercare spaces) that parents have decided to take their kids elsewhere in somewhat large droves. The school should be learning from this attrition, but time will tell on that…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The MV numbers absolutely show the attrition. There are 3 instead of 4 third grade classes this year, waitlists have been exhausted (apart from preK) and class sizes are overall smaller. In fact, the smaller class size is the silver lining of the attrition. There are some incredible teachers and experiences at the school widely range depending on the particular class. The school can be a wonderful experience but unfortunately there have been enough classroom management incidents (including violent ones), communication shortcomings (one of the longest running problems) and overall mismanagement (for example, not enough aftercare spaces) that parents have decided to take their kids elsewhere in somewhat large droves. The school should be learning from this attrition, but time will tell on that…

Does anyone know offhand how MV's financial condition is? If their budgets are based on X classes with Y seats and they are materially smaller then budgeted, that's going to create an issue.

Related question/comment. If MV flails financially, how that impacts their contribution to the joint operating expenses of DCI?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The MV numbers absolutely show the attrition. There are 3 instead of 4 third grade classes this year, waitlists have been exhausted (apart from preK) and class sizes are overall smaller. In fact, the smaller class size is the silver lining of the attrition. There are some incredible teachers and experiences at the school widely range depending on the particular class. The school can be a wonderful experience but unfortunately there have been enough classroom management incidents (including violent ones), communication shortcomings (one of the longest running problems) and overall mismanagement (for example, not enough aftercare spaces) that parents have decided to take their kids elsewhere in somewhat large droves. The school should be learning from this attrition, but time will tell on that…

Does anyone know offhand how MV's financial condition is? If their budgets are based on X classes with Y seats and they are materially smaller then budgeted, that's going to create an issue.

Related question/comment. If MV flails financially, how that impacts their contribution to the joint operating expenses of DCI?

I think they can trim down to a smaller number of classrooms. It's a big enough school that it's going to be pretty stable for a while.

[Anonymous]

Does this data say anything about ITS?